Sees Development Made in Palestine

August 19, 1934

After a six-month visit to Europe and Palestine, four of which was spent in the Holy Land, Rabbi Israel Herbert Levinthal of the Brooklyn Jewish Center returned Friday morning aboard the Cunard liner Berengaria, imbued with enthusiasm as to the rapid strides made in the development in Palestine during the past nine years.

Rabbi Levinthal declared that “the progress noted there since his last visit nine years ago, is almost unbelievable. It is one spot on this earth where new Jewish arrivals are eagerly welcomed.”

“The question of Palestine and the Jew has passed the stage of theory and is now a burning reality for the Jews in most lands of the globe,” he declared. “The Jews in every country of Eastern and Central Europe feel the foundations tottering beneath their feet. They look to Palestine as their one ray of hope.”

The rabbi expressed the opinion, however, that there are some dark aspects on the Palestinian horizon. “Up to a few years ago,” he said, “the country attracted only the supreme idealists and today, with the breakdown of the economic structure in nearly every land, Palestine is attracting also those who are actuated by other motives than ideals.”

Two months of the rabbi’s tour took him through England, France and Austria. He was in Austria at the time of Chancellor Dollfuss’ assassination. He said that the acts of terrorism in that country did more to convince the average Austrian of the dangers of Nazism than did any other event in recent years.